My Favorite Mistake
by Forlay
Summary: Sequel to We Meet Again. 2 Animorphs make a mistake, will things ever be the same?


_Author's Warning: There's some implied adult situations in this fic. If you don't like that sort of story, this isn't the fic for you._   
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#  My Favorite Mistake

##  By: Forlay

"Mom!" Elyssa called to me from the living room. "Phone! I think it's a reporter!"   
I sighed and pushed back from the computer I'd been working at, rubbing my eyes. I needed to stop spending so much time in front of the thing, I'm going blind and I'm not even 40!   
"From where?" I called back. I was waiting for a call from CNN, I wasn't going to talk to anyone else.   
Elyssa paused, then called back, "I was wrong! It's someone from Oprah! Your auto-biography got chosen for her book club and she wants you on the show!"   
I sighed, considering. Knowing I'd regret it later, I picked up my phone, yelled down to Elyssa that I had it, and started talking with the producer from Oprah.   
Once I hung up, I noticed Tom, now eleven, standing with Ellie, just a few days shy of her fifth birthday, standing in the doorway of my offices. Tom looked annoyed, Ellie just curious. "Mom, will you stop yelling? I can't hear myself while recording."   
I smiled gently, "Sorry, Tom. Go talk to your sister about that." I turned to Ellie as Tom stalked off, probably to his room to mess around-excuse me, compose-with his guitar. He'd been in a funk for a few months after we'd moved here and Mike decided that the only way to bring him out of it would be to buy the boy a guitar. Tom fell in love with it immediately and as soon as he could play it properly, had started writing songs. Guess he decided after finding out his mother was famous, he'd have to stand out to be noticed. Nothing was farther from the truth, of course.   
"What is it, Jelly-Ellie?" Calling her by the nickname she'd been given when she was younger after she ended up with grape jelly in her hair after eating-or playing with-her sandwich. You'd think that by the time I was on my third child Mike and I would have realized you can't give a kid that young a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Oh well.   
"Tom's being loud again," she said crawling up into my lap, dragging her blanket, 'B' behind her.   
I laughed and hugged her. Neither Ellie or Elyssa could stand Tom's musical attempts, and were quite vocal in their protests. "I'm sorry, El, but there's nothing I can do about it. Why don't you find Zorro and play with her in your room."   
"'Kay, Mommy," she said, sliding off my lap, running off to find our siamese cat, Zorro, faithfully dragging her blanket behind her.   
Hearing that the kids were all busy with their various Saturday morning activities, I turned back to the letter I'd been writing on the computer, talking about giving the rights to my auto-biography to a company to produce it as a TV-Movie for the History Channel, part of 'Animorph-a-mania' week. Television people are so gimmicky. Honestly, have you ever heard of a cheesier title for a week of programing?   
The phone rang just as I was printing out the letter telling the producer I wanted to see a basic script before I signed away rights. I quickly picked it up before phone-happy Elyssa could get it.   
"Hello?"   
"Hi, hon, it's me."   
"Really? I'm sitting here, talking to you, not me," I said coyly, knowing full well it was Mike.   
He laughed softly. "I'm going to be late again tonight."   
"Again?" At least three times a week over the last month and a half or so, Mike had had to work late, and weekends, as he was doing today. Overtime used to be rare with him. We didn't need the extra cash he earned, thanks to the royalties I got from books I'd had a part in, and even a movie about our lives as Animorphs, so I thought it was odd when he began getting so much. Of course, he's trying to work his way up in the company he works for so that could be an explanation. But it still made me uncomfortable, I even caught myself thinking absently that maybe he wasn't actually working...but I pushed those away quickly. Mike was a loving and devoted husband and father. He'd _never_ cheat on me. The very notion is something that the tabloids had come up with. It wasn't going to happen.   
I quickly shoved the letter into an envelope, addressed it and stamped it and ran out across the street to put it in the mailbox just before the mail carrier came to pick it up.   
As I was letting myself back into the house, I heard a car pull up in the driveway. Ready to bolt into the house and lock the door if it was a reporter, I turned around, to see Tobias getting out of his car.   
"Hey, Tobias!" I greeted, walking over to his car. Once he got out he gave me a huge hug. "What was that for?" I asked once he'd let me go.   
"Great news, Leah's gonna have another baby!" he said, grinning. Leah is his wife.   
"That's great, Tobias!" I gave him a hug. "How long 'till it's born?"   
"Around seven months."   
"Wonderful. You want to come in for a second? Have something to drink? I know how exciting this can be, it can wear you out."   
He shook his head, "No, I'll be fine. I want to get around to telling the others. I'll talk to you later." He got back into his car.   
"Yeah, oh, and tell Leah I say congrats."   
"Will do."   
I went back into the house and settled on the couch. Just as I picked up a novel I've been meaning to read forever, the doorbell rang. I sighed. "Elyssa? Can you get that?"   
"Sure, Mom!" she shouted. I heard her thundering up the stairs from the rec room in the basement to the door. I heard mumbled bits of conversation, then Elyssa shouting for me to come to the door.   
I sighed, but got up and slowly made my way to the door. Once there I was furious to find a reporter standing there, obviously harassing Elyssa. She had my temper and I could tell by the she was standing she was ready to explode at this woman.   
"Excuse me," I said icily, coming up Elyssa. "May I help you?"   
She looked over Elyssa's shoulder at me. "Oh, Rachel! I just came--"   
"I don't give a damn why you came," I told her. "You are going to leave right now."   
"But-"   
"Do you _really_ want me to demonstrate why I'm known as Xena?" I threatened. I noticed Elyssa's eyes light up at the prospect of that. I haven't morphed since the war ended, but for the five years Elyssa's known about me, she's always wished I would morph just once for her. It was an idle threat, and I'm sure Elyssa knew it, too, for I'd used it before, but it sure scared the reporter. She mumbled and apology, practically ran to her car, and screeched out of the neighborhood. As I was watching with smug satisfaction, I felt Elyssa come up from behind me and wrap her arms around my waist, burying her head in my back. Alarmed I turned around to ask her what was wrong. To my surprise, she was near tears. Elyssa was like me in many ways, including height, temper and reluctance to cry. I hadn't heard her really cry since she was eight.   
"Elyssa? What's wrong?"   
"That--that woman," she stammered. I shushed her and we walked quickly back into the house for some privacy.   
I sat Elyssa down on the couch and hugged her, asking her what was wrong as she cried into my shoulder. "That woman was asking about you and Dad," she managed to say. "She said she'd heard that he'd been seen with another woman, and that you were just seen with another Animorph." Elyssa tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress a sob. "And she kept bugging me about it, wanting to know anything I knew that would force you two apart..."   
I'd heard enough, I silenced her and let her cry herself out for a few more minutes while I seethed. Even _if_ Mike had been seen around with another woman, it wasn't the press' business! And suddenly I wasn't allowed to hug an old friend?! It was times like this that made me practically hate Cassie, Jake and Marco for spilling our secret at that blasted reunion. If they'd kept their mouths shut, Mike, Elyssa, Tom, Ellie and I would be halfway across the country enjoying ourselves, no one knowing about what I'd done, and Elyssa wouldn't be crying her eyes out now.   
As Elyssa's sobs were reduced to sniffles, Ellie came into the room, obviously shocked to see her older, infallible sister, crying. The little girl walked clumsily to the couch and pulled herself up next to Elyssa. Showing the most compassion I'd ever seen in a child her age, she covered herself and her older sister with B. "All better?" she asked when Elyssa looked at her. Elyssa wiped away her remaining tears and hugged her baby sister, "Yeah. All better."

A week later, things definitely weren't 'all better'. They were worse. Much worse.   
Mike stormed into the house after work, carrying a paper in his hand. He came into the dining room where Ellie and I were making play-dough. He slapped the paper down on the table in front of me and demanded, "What is _this_?"   
I looked at the paper. Then looked up at Mike with a 'I can't believe you' look. "Mike, it's the National Enquirer! You can't believe any of the crap they put in here!"   
"That's a pretty realistic picture of you on the cover."   
I looked back at it. That reporter from last Saturday must have been from the Enquirer for the picture was of me hugging Tobias. She must have had a photographer hiding somewhere while she took off. "Mike, that was the day Tobias told me Leah was pregnant. I was congratulating him."   
"Like hell you were. There have been alot of pictures of you lately with him--"   
"Oh, and what about you? I'll bet if you look in the article there's some pictures of you with that woman you've been seen all over the place with. But have I jumped all over you about it? No!"   
Mike glared at me, then seeming to notice Ellie for the first time, with her hands over her ears, he grabbed my arm and led me into the kitchen.   
"What is your _problem_?" I demanded. "Am I suddenly not allowed to talk with any of my old friends? If they get a picture of me and Jake together, are you going to think I'm cheating on you with him, too?"   
"If I have a reason to, yes!"   
I stared at him, "You're sick, Mike. You have no reason to believe I'd be cheating on you with Tobias or anybody. I'm the one who has reason to believe you haven't been honest, Mike. I wasn't going to say anything for awhile, but you haven't been working overtime. I saw your paycheck, you haven't worked half as much overtime as you've said you had. And this sudden 'overtime' started about the same time as those pictures of you and that woman started floating around. What do you have to say about that?"   
Mike looked white. I got a sick feeling in my stomach right then. I'd hoped what I'd been saying was just meaningless things brought out because we were both angry, but with that look on his face, I knew the truth. "Oh, no..." I leaned back against a counter to keep from collapsing. "Mike, don't tell me..."   
"It is," he whispered nearly inaudibly.   
"What?" I asked, just as quietly. My throat was tight with held back emotion.   
"I--"   
I covered my ears, much like Ellie had done when we'd been fighting. "I don't want to hear it, Mike. I honestly don't. Go upstairs, pack up your stuff, say good bye to the kids and leave. If you break up with that...that woman...maybe you can come back. But I can't think about that now."   
Without arguing, Mike left the kitchen and went up to our room. 10 minutes later, he was leaving the house with a suitcase in tow. Elyssa and Tom watched as he drove away, probably to his girlfriend's house.   
"Mom?" Elyssa asked. "What happened?"   
"What'd he tell you?" I asked, trying to sound normal.   
"Just that he had to go and didn't know when he'd be back," Tom answered.   
I sighed. How do you tell your kids they're father's a jerk? "Dad...well..."   
"The Enquirer was right, huh?" Elyssa said softly. "Dad's been cheating."   
Tom's eyes widened in shock when I nodded. He obviously hadn't been paying attention to what they'd been saying. "But..." he drifted off, not knowing what to say.   
I hugged both of them. "I'm sure your dad will be back soon. We just both need...a vacation from eachother."   
Elyssa pushed away from me, "Don't sugarcoat it, Mom. We can figure it out for ourselves." Without another word, she ran up the stairs and slammed the door to her room. Tom followed. I half expected Ellie to clamor up after them, but she was content with her play dough.   
I debated what to do next. Go back and play with Ellie? Watch TV? Go up and talk to Elyssa? The last one sounded like the best plan. The girl had a volatile temper, and if she didn't calm down she was likely to do something rash. She'd snuck out of the house while she was angry more than once.   
Quietly, I went upstairs and knocked on her door. "Elyssa?"   
"Go away!" was her muffled reply.   
"Elyssa, I just want to talk for a second."   
"No! This is your fault!"   
I opened the door and walked into the room. Her head was buried under her pillows so she didn't notice untill I'd sat down next to her. "How is this my fault?"   
"Why'd you have to be a stupid Animorph anyways? You should have known Dad wasn't cut out to be famous. You should have married that Tobias guy you were so fond of."   
I wanted to hug her, but there was no way she'd let me get close enough. She'd curled herself up on one end of the bed, leaving me on the other. "I didn't choose to be an Animorph, Elyssa, you know that. And you know very well I had no say over revealing who I was."   
"I bet you did," she said sulkily. "And if you hadn't been so busy with your stupid interviews and crap, Dad wouldn't have cheated."   
She was probably right there. I sighed. "I'm sorry you feel like that, I'll leave you here for awhile. Come down when you're ready."

The tension was thick in the house for the next two weeks. Elyssa only talked to me when necessary and spent most of her time holed up in her room. She wouldn't let anyone talk on the phone for very long and answered the phone every time it rang, hoping it was Mike.   
Tom also spent most of his time in his room, playing his guitar. Thankfully, he kept the door closed and turned his amp on one of the lowest volume settings and still be able to hear so the rest of us didn't have to listen. I love the kid, just not his music. He plays Nine Inch Nails' style, I prefer Alanis' style.   
And Ellie spent the day normally, but in the evening she'd usually cry herself to sleep since her daddy wasn't there to tuck her in and protect her from the monsters. She was too young to really understand what was going on. She just knew her daddy wasn't there.   
And I was just trying to hold it all together. I mediated fights between Elyssa and Tom, fended off questions from the press about Mike and I, and avoided pity whenever possible. I was doing fine, I didn't need the world crying for me.   
The final blow came a two and a half weeks after Mike had left. I got a letter in the mail from some law firm or other. I didn't think anything about it since lawyers were always contacting me, either wanting me to be their client or to talk about royalties. When I opened it and started reading, I sat down on a dining room chair. Hard. It was a letter from Mike's lawyer. He wanted a divorce.   
Elyssa looked up from the book she was reading at the table. Seeing the horrified look on my face, she said the first words to me she'd voluntarily said since Mike'd left. "What's wrong, Mom?"   
I forced myself to remain calm. "Your father wants a divorce."   
She gasped. "Well, forget waiting for him to come home then," she said. She marked her place in the book and gave me a hug. "He doesn't want custody of us or anything, does he? 'Cause I'm not living with him."   
"Why the sudden change?"   
"I'm not going to live with a guy who wants a _divorce_ from the most famous woman on Earth!"   
"And what about all the 'it's my fault he cheated' stuff you've been saying for the last two weeks?"   
She shrugged. "I was mad and I didn't think he'd be gone for long. I'm sorry, Mom."   
"It's okay, I understand," I said as i continued to read over the letter. "I don't know if he wants custody of you three yet. But if he does, I'm going to try and get it so you and your brother can choose which parent to live with. Ellie's going to live with me, of course. She's too young to choose." I folded up the letter. "But I don't want to talk about that right now. I might as well tell your brother now, the sooner he knows, the sooner I can call this damn lawyer and get this settled."

Get it settled. Uh-huh. Sure. Mike was determined not to make this easy for me, and accidentally, for the kids. I think he was determined to mar my name, make it look like wonderful Xena wasn't such a wonderful person after all. I knew I wasn't all that great a person, and anybody who knows me, or has even _read_ something that contained something about me knows I'm not great, I don't see why he needed to carry it out any longer than he had to.   
A year and a half later, though, I was finally free. From Mike, at least. As I left the court house where everything was finalized, I was mobbed by the press. A security guard had to clear a path for me to the cab I was going to take home, where the kids and my friends were waiting.   
I entered the house to cheers. All the Animorphs, my mom and sisters, and of course, my kids, were happy that I was finally free of Mike. They threw an impromptu party celebrating. I couldn't help but be drawn into the excitement, and I knew in my heart that there was nothing I could have done to stop the divorce. Mike was the one who'd left. But still, a part of me was distraught over the divorce being final. My mother and father had divorced when I was young, and I grew up hardly seeing Dad. I'd resolved never to let that happen to my kids, especially when Tom was born, but now it looks like I don't get a say in that. Both Elyssa and Tom had elected to live with me most of the time, they're only seeing their father every other holiday and two weeks during the summer, Mike didn't want any more responsibility for them since he and his fiancee (yes, he was engaged again) wanted to start a family of their own and didn't want the added responsibility of three kids who couldn't stand either of them. They were also moving back to Mike's hometown, so they'd be half way across the country, limiting the ammount of time that could be spent with them. Personally, I liked it that way. With him gone, I wouldn't be faced with constant reminders that Xena was the only Animorph to fail at marriage.   
The kids and I worked for the next week and a half getting settled into our new house. We'd moved just days before the divorce was finalized, none of us wanted to live in the house that had so many reminders of Mike, so we moved a few blocks away. Far enough so we weren't too near the house, close enough so the kids could stay in their current school and Elyssa and Tom could still bike to the old neighborhood to see their friends. Ellie's friends consisted of kids in her first grade class, none of whom were in the old neighborhood, so I didn't need to worry about her.   
Once settled in, life carried on much as it had before. I spent the day at home, occasionally working on a project just to keep from going stir-crazy, and giving myself 'mini-vacations' while the kids were at school, spending the day out shopping. There was one change though-I couldn't leave the kids home when I had to travel to promote something. I wasn't going to leave Elyssa home overnight while I was on the other side of the country for a week untill she could drive, just a year away. But untill then, I have to drag the kids everywhere with me, which they despise. I would leave them with another Animorph, but more often than not, we're all traveling together, and I'm just not comfortable with leaving Ellie with someone who isn't one of her parents. Call me over-protective if you want, but I'm not changing my ways.   
Elyssa was learning to like the traveling though. On more than one occasion, we've all gone to New York City, which she has fallen in love with. She's determined to move there when she grows up and become a famous Broadway actress. Tom was adamant not to have a good time when he traveled with us. The thought of being the only guy in a group of four horrified him. And Ellie was always just getting used to a place when we left again. I hated doing it to them, but I didn't have a choice.   
Elyssa's 16th birthday finally came, and it happened to be the very day she got her driver's license, great birthday present or what? So the constant traveling had finally ended for them. And it was slowing down for me. The fanatical interest in the Animorphs was beginning to wan. The only traveling I did now was the occasional charity function, nothing major. I was beginning to feel depressed. Like, the action's over, now what? Although a letter I got in the mail changed that. For awhile, at least.   
"Yo, Mom!" Elyssa called to me as she slammed the front door shut. "You've got mail from Paramount."   
"Paramount?" I asked, setting down my book. "Paramount as in the movie studio?"   
"That's what it looks like," she said, handing me a stack of envelopes. The letter from Paramount was on top, I ripped it open, at a glance I could tell it was a form letter, it was all typed except for my name, which was scrawled in barely legible handwriting at the top.

Rachel ________--   
Hello, I'm Brooke Lynn York, I'm a director at Paramount Studios.   
I've recently written a screenplay for a movie based on your, and the rest of the Animorphs' lives. Most of the film shall be seen in flash blacks, but in order to do flash backs, we need the Animorphs as their adult selves. If you would be willing, the rest of the crew and I would be honored if you would be a part of our movie, not only as an actor, but as a consultant. We want this to be the most accurate portrayal of your lives as possible.   
Please contact me soon.

At the bottom was a phone number, and her scrawled signature. "Geez, that girl had some messed parents," I muttered to myself as I re-read the letter.   
"Who did?" Elyssa asked. "And what's it about?"   
"This director at Paramount wants to do a movie about the lives of the Animorphs, it's going to be done in flash backs and she wants the Animorphs to be in the movie, and act as consultants. Oh, and get her name, Brooke Lynn York."   
"Brooklyn?"   
"Brooke Lynn," I corrected.   
"You're right, her parents were messed."   
"I'm going to call the others, see if they got these and what they're going to do. I'll be up in my office."   
I called Cassie first once I was in my small office. Her husband picked up.   
"Hi, Dan," I said when I recognized his voice. "It's Rachel, Cassie there?"   
"Yeah, she was just about to call you, actually. Something about a movie."   
"Which is exactly what I wanted to talk to her about."   
"I'll get her on." There was a click as Dan put me on hold. A minute later Cassie picked up.   
"You going to do this movie thing?" she asked immediately.   
"Hi, Cassie. How are you? Nice to talk to you again," I said brightly.   
She laughed. "Sorry, Rachel. But did you get this movie thing?"   
"From Brooke Lynn?"   
"I thought Paramount was in California..."   
Now it was my turn to laugh. "Brooke Lynn is the name of the director who's doing the movie."   
"Oh, yeah. Poor girl."   
"But I am thinking about doing this 'movie thing'. I wasn't going to call Ms. York untill I heard what every one else was planning."   
"I'm all for it, and I'm sure the others will be, too."   
Once again I wondered what had happened to the quiet girl Cassie had been when we were growing up. She'd never have agreed to something like this. "All right, I'll call you back in a few."   
I called the rest of my friends. Marco was going to accept no matter what the rest of us decided, which was just so him, Jake and Tobias would if Cassie, Marco and I would. It was unanimous. I called Cassie back to tell her we'd decided to go ahead with the movie. Once I finished talking with her, I dialed the number Brooke had given me.   
It took a few tries to get past the busy signals, probably the others calling, but I finally reached her office.   
"Brooke Lynn York's office, Paramount Studios. Who's calling?" a woman asked brusquely.   
"Rachel ________."   
"We've been been expecting your call. You've decided to accept the movie offer?"   
"Yes, I have."   
"Good, Ms. York will be glad to hear that. We planned on starting next weekend, would you be able to make it then?"   
I scanned my desk calendar quickly. "Yeah."   
"Good, we'll send you your plane ticket right away. See you in a week." She hung up.   
I hung up, too, muttering about how that woman needed to learn how to hold a proper phone conversation, then hurried down the stairs to tell Elyssa I needed her to baby sit next weekend.   
"But that's Homecoming!" was her protest.   
"Did I say you needed to stay home every minute? No. Tom can stay with Ellie while you're at the game and the dance, but you'll need to be home otherwise. No parties, no spending the night at a friends, that sort of thing."   
"How long you going to be gone?"   
"I have no idea. The receptionist I talked to didn't give me much information, but if I'm going to be gone during the week, I'll have on of the neighbors get Ellie off to school so neither you or Tom will be late."   
"And that's the reason I was going to watch her," she pouted with a mischievous look.   
"You!" I said, giving her a slight shove. Then I told Tom and Ellie about the trip. Tom couldn't really care less about it, but Ellie wanted to go with me. Of course, I couldn't let her, but she did like the idea of staying with Elyssa for the weekend. She may be nearly seven, but she still worships the ground her sister walks on.   
My plane ticket arrived on Tuesday. First class round trip, leaving here Friday afternoon, return date to be announced. "Great, they have no idea how long they're gonna keep me," I muttered when I read that.   
As soon as Ellie got home from school on Friday, I got all of us into the car and had Elyssa drive us to the airport.   
"Elyssa, you remember the rules, right?" I asked before getting out of the car when we had parked at the airport.   
"You've told me a hundred times, Mom. No going to or having parties, no friends over after eight, absolutely no guys, and if Mike--"   
"_Dad_," I interrupted sternly. Mike may be an idiot, but he's still Elyssa's, Tom's and Ellie's father. Elyssa seems to have trouble remembering that.   
"Whatever. If he calls we're to hang up immediately. Although why he'd call is beyond me." I hadn't told her Mike had been calling lately, wanting to see more of them kids for reasons I couldn't begin to fathom.   
"I'll call if I won't be back before Monday," i told them. "Bye, guys! Elyssa and Tom mumbled their good-bye while Ellie yelled it out cheerfully. I got my bags from the trunk and waved as Elyssa pulled the car out of the lot.   
An hour later, all the Animorphs were on the plane on our way to California. Whoever bought our plane tickets must have had a warped sense of humor, however. Tobias and I were seat mates, as were Jake and Cassie. Marco was in the seat behind mine, alone, as he was way back when.   
The flight was a quiet one. Tobias and I seemed to be able to have only short conversations. I convinced myself it was just nerves. I mean, we were both adults now, having put our high school romance and arguments behind us. The only cause for lack of conversation had to be nerves.   
So four hours later, it was a silent group that exited the plane. One of the Paramount "gophers", unimportant people that would 'go for' whatever the important ones wanted them to, was waiting for us and escorted us to the limo that would take us to the studio lot.   
"Follow me to Ms. York's office," the gopher, Chris, told us when we reached the lot. We obeyed, taking in the sights of the movie lot as we walked.   
Cassie walked next to me, behind Chris, but ahead of the other guys. "So, what do you think?" she asked.   
"Of what?"   
"We're on a movie set. We're going to be in a movie. Don't tell me you're not excited!"   
I shrugged. "I guess I am...I'm just caught up in my thoughts, I guess."   
She nodded compassionately, "Worried about the kids?"   
Trust Cassie to figure that out immediately. "Can you blame me?"   
She laughed. "Not really."   
"Here's Ms. York's office," Chris announced, stopping at an office door. "Go right on in."   
We all looked at eachother for a moment, the unspoken question obvious, were we all in on this? Just as obvious was the answer. Yes.   
"Let's do it," I said quietly. Cassie was the only one that heard and barely suppressed a laugh. I flashed my famous grin and boldly opened the door.   
Sitting behind a desk in the center of the room was a young red haired woman, 25 at the most, legs up on the desk, filing her nails. She glanced up at us briefly, popped her gum and pointed to another door. "Ms. York's in there." She went back to her nails.   
Once again, I opened the door. This time behind the desk was a tall brunette woman, staring intently at a computer screen. She didn't even notice we'd come in untill I'd cleared my throat. She looked up, startled. "Oh, hi," she said, flustered, while she pushed back her chair and stood up. She walked around the desk to stand in front of us. "Marco, Cassie, Tobias, Jake and Rachel? Brooke Lynn York," she introduced as she shook our hands in turn. "It's an honor and a pleasure to meet you. Really. Thank you so much for coming so quickly. I know you have families you're anxious to return to so I'll keep these meetings as brief as possible. Would you like to take a seat?" She indicated the five chairs in front of her desk. "I can print out the basic plot outline I have so far and you can critique me on it."   
We all took a seat while Brooke sat down in front of her computer again and clicked the print button. Five minutes later, we all had copies of the outline and were looking them over.   
"I know it's short," Brooke said apologetically, "But I didn't want to put something in there and find out it was totally off."   
I nodded absently and nearly dropped it when I saw who's point of view the movie was to be from. Me. The movie was going to mostly revolve around me, starting with that stupid reunion.   
"How come you're following Rachel?" marco asked, noticing how often I was mentioned.   
"I don't know if any of you have followed those periodic polls someone comes out with about 'Who's _your_ favorite Animorph?', but since Rachel's divorce," she sent me an apologetic glance, "She's topped them consistently. I wanted to do a movie featuring all of you equally, but the producers figure we can get more money by focusing heavily on Rachel."   
"Yippee," I muttered.   
"I got the rest of you as much as possible--"   
"But the producers are God," Marco supplied.   
Brooke smiled, "Exactly."   
"I think this looks good so far," Cassie said after a moment. "It definitely needs more detail, but it's a good start."   
"Great," Brooke said, grinning. "Does anybody have any suggestions for anecdotes to use? Any times that stick out in memory?"   
We started to fill Brooke in on the specifics from the time I'd tried vainly to block out as much as possible, the war with the Yeerks, and then our post-war, pre reunion lives. She frantically scribbled notes, getting down the stories almost as fast as we could tell them. It took two hours, and nearly an entire notebook for Brooke, but our stories were recorded.   
"What time is it?" I asked Brooke, stifling a yawn once she finished writing.   
She looked at her watch, "Seven, why?"   
"Time change," Cassie explained. "It feels to be 11 to us."   
"Oh, I forgot about that," Brooke said. "I'll walk you out front to pick up a cab. You know where your hotel is?" We assured her we did, and could get to the front of the studio by ourselves. Reluctantly, she let us go on alone.   
We got to the main entrance of the studio and hailed a taxi. All five of us managed to squeeze in. Cassie, Jake, Tobias and I in the back, Marco up front. He gave the driver the address of our hotel and I settled back for the ride.

Our luggage had been transferred directly to the hotel from the airport, so we simply had to give our names to the receptionist and get our room numbers. Brooke hadn't spared any expenses, each of us had a private suite, one next to another so we could visit easily.   
By the time I was in my room, I'd gotten my second wind. I wasn't tired anymore, so instead I got some food and a wine cooler out of the pantry the hotel supplied and laid back on the bed, flipping through the channels on TV.   
About an hour later, just as I was about to feel the effect of the wine cooler, someone knocked at the door.   
"Who is it?" I called, not wanting to get up.   
"Tobias," was the muffled response.   
"Be there in a sec!" I called, reluctantly rolling out of the bed. As I walked to the door, I checked myself in the mirror and smoothed a few wisps of hair down. Once I was sure I looked fine, I opened the door.   
Tobias smiled when he saw me. He held up a bottle of champagne, "Mind if I come in?"   
Wondering why he'd brought the champagne, I let him in. "What brings you here?" I asked slowly, not wanting to sound like I'd been drinking.   
He set the bottle and on the bar and poured two glasses, handing one to me. "Nothing much, just thought I'd spend an evening with you." His speech was slightly slurred.   
I sipped the champagne. "Mmmmm. Really?"   
He shrugged. "We're in Hollywood, might as well act the part."   
I smiled slightly as the bubbles from the champagne tickled my nose. "Yeah, guess you're right. So, did you have any...plans for tonight?"   
Now he smiled, and sat down on the bed. "Maybe."   
Through my alcohol induced stupor, that sent warning bells off. Something was wrong with this...although I couldn't quite place what it was...oh, well.   
Tobias must have noticed my pause. "Rachel, I do love you. I mean, ever since we got here, I haven't been able to think of much else than out. Hell, ever since you moved away back after high school, I haven't been able to think of much else."   
This wasn't right. Tobias was...he was...I couldn't think of the word, but Tobias couldn't love me, could he? "That's sweet, Tobias, but..."   
"But what?"   
Oh, what the hell. We were in Hollywood, I could say it! "I love you, too. But...doesn't something feel wrong about this to you? I can't put my finger on it..."   
He put a finger to my lips, "Shhh. What could be wrong with this?"   
Well...when he put it that way. "Well... all right." And I brushed off whatever it was that was holding me back and gave in to Tobias.

I woke up around five the next morning, before Tobias had. I looked over at him. He looked so peaceful asleep. Then I remembered, through my slight hang over, what we'd done last night.   
"Oh, my God," I moaned, getting out of the bed. Tobias woke up at the movement.   
"What?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.   
"Tobias, do you realize where you are? Where you spent the night?"   
He looked confused for a moment, but he soon realized what I was talking about. "Oh, oh God..."   
"I don't think divine intervention is very plausible right now," I said brusquely. "Here's the deal, this never happened. It's five am here, no one will be awake to see you coming out of my room. No one needs to know what happened here."   
"Um, right, sure," he said. "I guess."   
"You _guess_?" I asked, incredulously. "There's no guessing about it! In Layman's terms, Tobias, you cheated on Leah with me last night. Cheating is what broke up my marriage, you don't want to do that to Leah and the kids."   
"Yeah, yeah, you're right, of course. I mean, I do love Leah...but then how come I love you, too?"   
I stopped sorting through my luggage, trying to find my robe, and turned to Tobias. "Oh, God, Tobias, I love you, too. Or maybe we're both still a little drunk. Last night wouldn't have happened if one or the other weren't true. But either way, you know as well as I that it was wrong."   
"You're right. Last night was stupid. I'll see you later?"   
I pulled the robe out of a suitcase, "Yeah." I suppressed an urge to lean down and give him a peck on the cheek and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

By the time I got down to the lobby, everyone else was there. Tobias didn't say anymore than 'hello' to me, no more than he usually would have. Hopefully no on would pick up on a change between us, although I thought I caught a suspicious look from Cassie.   
"Brooke said we didn't need to be in untill noon," Jake said. "She figured we could do some sightseeing."   
"Cool," I said. "Cassie, want to go shopping?"   
I was just teasing, fully expecting a horrified 'no!', but she said, "Sure."   
Trying not to show my surprise, I said to the guys, "Well, unless you want to tag along behind us while we power shop, when and where do you want to meet?"   
"How about the studio at noon? Maximum time to see as much as we want to today," Cassie suggested.   
I think everyone suspected something was up with Cassie, but no one said anything. We agreed to meet at Brooke's office at noon. The guys caught one taxi and went off to do who knows what, while Cassie and I got another and headed towards the shopping district.   
"So...what's up between you and Tobias?" she asked casually as we flipped through a rack of clothes.   
"Nothing," I responded automatically. Which was being truthful, sort of. Nothing more would happen between us as long as Tobias was married, and I wasn't even going to _think_ about Tobias getting a divorce.   
"When why did he come out of your room this morning?"   
I stared at her. "How did you know about that?"   
"I was leaving my room this morning and saw him leaving yours."   
"Okay, so maybe we were together last night..." I admitted reluctantly.   
"Rachel! He's _married_! You, of all people, should know how someone cheating can ruin a marriage!"   
"I know, Cassie," I really do. But you don't understand."   
She laid a hand on my shoulder, "Try me."   
We left the store and found a seat in a small cafe where I felt more comfortable talking. Once the waitress had taken our order, I told Cassie about what had happened the night before.   
"I know now I shouldn't have," I told her when I was finished. "But...I have a clear head now, Cassie, and I still love him. That's not an excuse for last night, but it's all I have. That and all the alcohol."   
Cassie shook her head, obviously disappointed in me. "I don't know what to say, Rachel. I know you haven't had the happiest home life--"   
"Let's not bring that into this," I said. "What happened, happened, and it's not going to happen again. I'm not going to risk Tobias, or Leah, or their kids, having to go through what I did just so I can be happy with him. I'm not like that, no matter what Mike thought."

We spent the afternoon at Brooke's office, working on writing the first scene of the movie. We kept the dialogue as exact to our reunion as we could, since the first scene was a recreation of that day when our lives had been turned upside down for the second time, although we condensed it a bit. No one wanted to waste half an hour hearing what we'd done the past ten years.   
We finished around five and opted to go out to dinner instead of going back to the hotel. We were beginning to get used to California time, so even through we were more hungry than we should have been at five, it wasn't all that much of a difference.   
After dinner and a bit more sightseeing, we returned to the hotel for the night.   
I'd just gotten off the phone with Tom, checking in on things at home when there was a knock at the door. I knew who it was immediately. Tobias. I considered ignoring him, pretending to be asleep already, but he kept knocking, so I answered.   
"What?" I asked, letting him in.   
"We need to talk."   
"About what? I thought we sorted everything out this morning."   
"You call agreeing last night never happened sorting everything out? I thought last night meant something."   
"You sound like a teenager! Yes, last night meant something. It meant we made a mistake. We were both drunk, you can't say anything you say or do while drunk meant something."   
"We still need to talk," he insisted.   
"Fine. Talk. I'm listening."   
"We need to decide what _did_ happen last night. I've been trying to decide all day exactly how to act around you--"   
"Like nothing's different," I said.   
"You can't go through what we did and say nothing's different."   
"Isn't this the same argument we had back in High School? The one that caused our break up? I wanted to go one with life as if nothing had changed and you insisted we couldn't? For now, we need to keep up the pretense of normalcy. Which means you can't be coming to my room every night! Especially since..."   
"Especially since _what_?"   
"Nothing. Forget I said anything."   
"Rachel. What. Happened."   
"Cassie sorta knows what happened last night," I said in a rush.   
"What?!"   
"It's not like I meant for her to know! She saw you leaving here this morning and confronted me while we were out shopping."   
"Damn," he cursed under his breath.   
"It's not like everyone knows. This isn't the tight knight group it used to be. She's not going to tell anybody."   
"I hope you're right."

We spent the rest of the week in Hollywood, helping Brooke get down all the details of the movie. She'd spend the next two weeks or so getting the script together and showing it to her superiors. In the mean time, we were all going home.   
All our families were at the airport when we arrived home, with one noticeable exception: Tobias'.   
Ellie was ecstatic to see me again, you'd have thought I'd been gone for a year, not a week, with the way she was carrying on. Tom was more subdued, which wasn't all that surprising. Elyssa was pretty calm, too, although I got the feeling it wasn't because she was 16 and 'too cool' to gush over her mother returning home.   
She didn't say much on the way home, either, she left all the questioning about the trip up to Ellie and Tom.   
When we got home and I'd put all my stuff away, I asked her what was wrong.   
"Besides the fact maybe Dad was right about you cheating? Nothing."   
"What do you mean?" I asked, dreading the answer.   
"Monday we got two calls after school. One was from Leah, asking if I'd heard yet. I had no idea what she was talking about. She apologized quickly and hung up. Not an hour later, there was another call. Dad. Yes, I know you said not to talk to him, but I did, all right? He asked if I'd read the tabloids lately. Naturally, I hadn't. So he told me the Enquirer's cover story. Xena and Birdboy: Back together. He asked me to consider moving in with him since at least he'd never lied about his cheating--"   
"Never lied!"   
"Chill, Mom, let me finish. Anyways, I hung up on him, but called one of my friends. She had the story and brought it over," she shook her head ruefully. "And I thought you were telling the truth during the divorce."   
"I was, Elyssa. And--Dammit, I don't need to justify myself to you! If you don't like me for what happened while I was there, fine, I'm not going to stop you, just don't try and pass judgment on me, you have no idea what happened that night."   
"I know plenty. My mother's a slut who hasn't been laid since--" I silenced that train of thought with a resounding slap across her cheek.   
"I don't want to hear that sort of language around me," I warned her sternly. She just glared at me. Her cheek was slightly red from the slap, but she'd stayed strong and refrained from touching it.   
Just when the tension between us was about to explode again, the phone rang. Elyssa took the opportunity to bolt to her room, while I answered the phone.   
"Yes?" I answered, sharper than I'd intended.   
"Something wrong?" the voice on the other end of the line-Tobias-asked.   
"Why are you calling me?" I asked. "I have a situation on my hands." I heard the sound of Elyssa's window being forced open upstairs. The window that led out over the room and near the trellis on the side of the house. _Dammit!_ I thought.   
"Everyone knows," he told me quietly. From the background noise, I could guess he was in his car on his cell phone. Apparently, he hadn't been too welcome at home.   
A thump upstairs. Elyssa was on the roof now. "I have to go. Mike and a friend told Elyssa about what happened and now she's pissed and trying to run away." Without waiting for an answer, I hung up and ran out the door to try and intercept Elyssa.   
I found her on the side of the house, climbing down the trellis, backpack swung over her shoulders.   
"Elyssa!" I shouted. She looked down at me. "No!" she shouted, virtually shaking with anger, which scared me. Yes, perhaps I had betrayed her trust, and I probably shouldn't have slapped her, but this was over reacting!   
She started to climb back up the trellis. Why, I don't know. Maybe she planned to jump off the roof or something equally crazy. But before she could get back up to the top, her foot slipped off the trellis.   
"Ahhh!" she screamed as she hung precariously by her hands, feet scrabbling to get hold of the frame. But the word was old and rotted and had collapsed beneath her feet.   
My mind was racing. What could I do? The trellis wouldn't hold me, so I couldn't climb up and help her. I couldn't let her fall...morph!   
But what could help her down? Chimpanzee could climb up, but couldn't help her down, and I didn't have anything else that could climb, so what was large enough to reach her from the ground?   
I smiled slightly when the morph came to me. "Elyssa, hang on! I'll get you down!" By now, half the neighborhood, including Tom and Ellie, had gathered around. And I began to do the one thing I'd sworn never to do again: Morph.   
The changes began slowly at first, but became gradually faster. I grew larger by the ton. My legs and arms thickened into tree trunks. My nose stretched out to become a fifth limb. Meanwhile, my skin was turning rough and gray. With my rapidly fading eye-sight, I saw Elyssa stare at me, both afraid and maybe slightly revolted at the sight of her mother turning into an African Bull Elephant.   
Before long, the morph was complete. I stretched my trunk and carefully wrapped it around Elyssa's waist.   
Hold on tight, Elyssa, > I told her. I'm going to set you down on the ground, all right? > She nodded and clung to my trunk.   
As slowly and carefully as I could, I brought Elyssa down and set her on the ground and promptly proceeded to demorph to the sound of cheers. Thank God I was wearing tight shorts and a sports bra today, the rest of my clothes were in shreds, I hadn't even thought to kick off my shoes.   
Elyssa, Tom and Ellie, who'd come out when they heard Elyssa's scream, all gave me a hug once I was fully human. In the middle of our celebration, a car pulled up in the driveway. I looked up, once again, it was Tobias.   
"God, this is _not_ the time," I muttered quietly. Elyssa noticed him, too, and stiffened. "Stay here," I told her, Tom and Ellie, and jogged over to meat him.   
"What'd I miss?" he asked.   
"Oh, nothing out of the ordinary. Just saving the life of one of the most important people in mine," I said casually, folding my arms in front of me as I was suddenly aware just how little I was wearing.   
"Oh. I just...I mean.."   
"I know. But you know what? I say we keep contact to a minimum. You patch up your marriage, I'll patch up my family. Both are more important than anything that could happen between us."   
He nodded solemnly, understanding. He went back to his car and drove away while I returned to the kids.   
"Come on, lets get inside," I said, ushering them into the house. "Is it just me, or is it cold out here?"

I spent the next two years hopping back and forth between California and home. There weren't any more unfortunate incidents between Tobias and I, although we were a bit strained at times. Leah hadn't wanted to stay with him under any circumstances, so although he was single again, I wouldn't allow myself to go beyond being friends with him. I couldn't risk the hard won trust of my family for a few nights of pleasure with Tobias.   
But finally, premiere night came. All of us were taking our families with us to California for a week to see the opting of the movie we'd put so much effort into.   
Elyssa, now a beautiful young woman at 18, Ellie, a spunky nine year old, and I had new dresses for the big event. Tom, 14, had a suit which he made well known he was wearing "under protest".   
I took two limos to get the Animorphs entourage to the theater. My family and I shared a limo with Cassie's and Marco, since we had room for one more person, while Jake and Tobias got their families, Tobias had custody of the kids for the week, into another. Cassie, her husband, Marco and I made small talk on the way there, but we were too nervous to say much.   
I'd never been to a movie premiere before, so I was surprised to step out of the limo and feel the heels of my stilettos sink into the red carpet, and all the cameras that went off seemingly at once. I plastered a smile on my face as I'd seen movie stars do and waited for the kids to climb out before entering the theater, occasionally stopping to pose for a photograph.

The movie was great. It started with the reunion and proceeded to tell the story of the Animorphs through a unique point of view mine. If the documentaries ever focused on one character when showing the entire story it was Jake, the fearless leader. Of course, those always had numerous errors, since they didn't have u watching every line placed in the script. I can safely say this movie presented a new, truthful, view on the fight.   
As we were leaving the theater, Elyssa whispered to me, "Hey, ask Tobias if he wants to go do something. I'll keep track of everybody." I shot her a questioning look. "He's been watching you all week. He loves you, Mom. And you love him, that much is obvious. Tom and Ellie don't mind, I don't mind. If his kids don't, go for it." She gave me a reassuring smile and surged ahead with Tom and Ellie. Not for the first time, I marveled at how mature she'd become.   
Tobias, seeing I was alone, managed to get closer to me in the crush of people. I felt a wave of emotions when he brushed against me. Loyalty, anger, guilt. But most prominently of all, love.   
"Want to get together later?" I whispered. He jerked away in surprise. "Elyssa suggested it and volunteered to provide child care. And this time, we won't mess up."   
He found my hand and squeezed it gently. "No, we won't."

_Author's Notes: Before you start asking, there will be _no_ sequel to this!!! What happens with Rachel and Tobias is totally up to you. Anyway, that said and done, what'd ya' think of the story? Send me all questions (except will I write a sequel and what happens to Rachel and Tobias), comments and...you can leave the death threats far away from me._


End file.
